Margarita de Austria y la infanta Ana María Mauricia en las fiestas de Valladolid (1605): Nuevas de Corte en Fastigínia ou Fastos Geniais de Tomé Pinheiro da Veiga

Everything was ready for the birth of Philip IV in Valladolid, but his mother, Margaret of Austria, did not stop attending the previous celebrations. Such a happy event took place on April 8, 1605, Friday of Holy Week, and in its honor the city was decorated and organized parties, bullfights, dances, theatrical performances and street shows that would not stop until mid-June. The splendor of such celebrations was witnessed by a Portuguese who remained at the Court from December 1604 to July 26, 1605, Tomé Pinheiro da Veiga, who reflects the atmosphere and pageantry in a kind of chronicle of celebrations – both in the sense of celebration as well as courtship –, Fastigínia ou Fastos Geniais, written in Portuguese – with dialogues in Spanish – in 1605 but with additions dated between 1607 and 1620. We will analyze the cultural impressions of this foreign but Iberian pen that, in the form of «news from the court», tells anecdotes about the queen’s participation in the merriment despite her condition and the impact of her presence among the spectators, as well as about the graces and insight of the Infanta Ana María Mauricia.